today thurber has some surprising words about president obama. >> president obama in his campaign in 2008 said he was going to change the way washington works. >> i will launch the most sweeping ethics reform in history to make the white house the people's house and send the washington lobbyists back to k street. ( applause ) >> he hasn't. he's failed. because if you want to get a piece of legislation like his health care piece through, you have to bring in big interests. he did. he brought in a.a.r.p., he brought in hospital associations, he brought in the a.m.a. in a coalition to support that. >> reporter: increasingly lobbyists aren't just influencing legislation. they help write it. even davis recalls being put off by that facet of a lobbyist's role several years ago >> there were 40 lobbyists in the room. we were arguing as if we were elected to something, about the placement of a comma. i kid you not. the placement of that comma had a huge -- i won't explain why, but trust me -- it had a huge importance. i thought to myself, if the american people were really here and we were o